Multi-User Mobile Applications and a Public Display: Novel Ways for Social Interaction

In this paper we introduce prerequisites for the empowerment of social interaction when using a multi-user mobile service. The paper is based on a case study of user experiences of a multiplayer mobile game where the players attend the game via their mobile phones whilst their activity is materialized on a common public display. Based on the results of user evaluation we introduce three enabling factors for social interaction in a multiplayer game: context, communication and identification. User aspects to these factors as well as perspectives to other types of services are presented.